The Gaia System
Terran stared with a blank look at the translucent screen floating in front of him.
[Welcome to the Gaia System]
Under the message were a few tabs. However, only the first four were readable, while the others were grayed out and covered with a padlock symbol. The four readable panels were Stats, Abilities, Quests, and Lottery.
Lying on the ground, a little dazed, Terran squinted his eyes and reached out to touch the floating text box. Yet, upon reaching it, his hand passed right through as if it was not there. Confused, Terran continued waving his hand, but no matter how many times his hand passed through, nothing happened.
<Try using your mind to control the panel.> The same mechanical voice that had appeared a second ago suggested.
Remembering the odd voice, Terran looked around. Although he did not expect to see anyone, it was his body's natural response.
Terran was, of course, stunned by his current situation. Despite his experiences so far not granting him an excellent idea of normal, he could tell this was not it. However, despite having this feeling, he did not linger on it and instead quickly discarded his questions.
Frankly, he was more excited about exploring the city and starting a real life. The elation originating from his newfound freedom and possibilities excited him down to his very core.
He knew he had to be close to the city after passing through the barrier. Due to the excitement of finally having an abundance of new things to explore along with the freedom to do it, Terran's attention to his newfound floating screen was actually relatively small.
Taking the voice's advice, Terran imagined the translucent screen disappearing. However, to his irritation, regardless of how he thought of it, the text box remained. Additionally, instead of closing, a new line of text appeared.
[ERROR! -- Please explore all four tabs before closing.]
Slightly aggravated, Terran turned his focus to the stats tab. This time the translucent panel shifted to a new screen.
--
[Terran]
[Level 1]
[0/100 exp]
[Mana: 0/100]
[Strength: 7]
[Intelligence: 10]
[Agility: 10]
[Stamina: --]
Without giving it any thought, Terran moved on to the abilities panel. He had read through everything without giving it any thought and was currently in a rush to remove the screen from his line of sight.
--
Gaia's blessing | S Rank
Skills:
1. Regeneration (Passive.) (Cannot be inactivated by any internal or external force.)
--
There was a copious amount of information under Gaia's blessing. Unfortunately, the fact was that almost all of it was grayed out, similar to the inaccessible tabs.
The abilities tab was currently very brief.
Like the stat panel, Terran felt that the abilities panel offered little information and only added more confusion. He had been aware of his regeneration since almost the beginning of his memories. Meanwhile, this page only seemed to classify it. Moreover, in his mind, the way animals acted around him should be under this ability panel as well, and yet it was nowhere in sight.
"System, why is my tie with animals not classified under this tab?" Terran decided to ask directly, hoping it would shine a light on his confusion as it had done previously.
< Information denied, host's authority level is too low. Please level up to increase authority.>
A little agitated, Terran decided to ask another question. He had been fine living in the dark, but now that he was getting snippets of information, it was like there was a puzzle in his head that he had lost the most crucial pieces to.
"System, what's a blessing?" Terran asked, deciding on something more fundamental.
Thankfully, he was not denied this time. Still, the system's response was short and concise.
<Blessings are small fractions of the power held by gods.>
This response left Terran a little stunned. He was aware of the concept of gods, but he had not spared them any thought as his mind had already classified them as fictional. With this bare explanation by the system, Terran actually became a bit more interested in this mysterious screen.
Swallowing his shock, he moved his attention to the third tab labeled quests.
--
Mission Statement: Bring life back to the planet of Titan.
--
Terran's eyes stayed glued to the first line of text under the quests tab. To say the least, his mind was a little bewildered.
"Excuse me? What the fuck! If I could revitalize this dump, I would have ages ago! Does this magic robot think I enjoyed suffering all that time?"
He had to have read the line at least a dozen times when the system's mechanical voice interjected once more.
<It is within expectation for the user to be unable to complete the mission statement at the current time. The mission statement is simply a goal. All quests work to guide the system's user towards completing the mission statement.>
Terran could only sigh. If he was being honest, he didn't know what to do with all the new information. His microscopic world was ballooning up to fast, and all his knowledge was in shambles. Eventually, he snapped out of his initial stupor, sourly deciding to continue reading.
--
Daily Quests:
-Push-Ups 0/100
-Sit-Ups 0/100
-Squats 0/100
-Reading 0/60min
-Conversations 0/60min
Rewards:
- +3 Stat Points
- 25 EXP
- 1 Lottery Spin
--
"Is it so easy to grow stronger? I understand working out, even reading could be considered a form of exercise for the mind, but conversations? Why are they there?"
Unlike the previous cases, the system actually seemed eager to answer this question.
< User's history suggests signs of being a NEET. The user's growth has been completely stagnant, and the mission statement cannot be completed by a social reject. To correct the user's missteps, daily quests have been assigned to positively reinforce the behaviors of a productive member of society.>
"Ha-ha, real funny fuck you! You know full well what I've been living through! Now that I'm free, sit back and watch as this social-butterfly flourishes."
Terran waited for some kind of response, but none came. "And you really say I'm the one that needs to practice their conversations." Unfortunately, no matter how long he fished for the system's mentally deficient explanations, he was only met with silence.
Eventually, he just continued reading. After all, he'd rather be exploring the city than conversing with the rude wall of a system making its home in his mind. At least it didn't seem to be living completely rent-free.
--
Quest Name: Theft
Description: Steal one blessing.
Additional Information: To steal a blessing, an insignia has been granted to the user that can absorb the blessing from a target's body up to five minutes after their death.
Time Limit: None.
Rewards: Unknown.
--
Terran was initially baffled that the system wanted him to kill someone. "So much for breathing life back into this planet." However, after carefully taking a second look, he was glad to see that it never specifically mentioned he had to kill anyone. Additionally, there was no time limit, meaning this quest was not required.
Although he would be lying if he said his broken mental state would care about a random person's life, the idea and trouble behind killing someone left a foul taste in his mouth.
Pleased that the system had not turned him into its personal attack dog, Terran moved on to the final available tab, Lottery. Upon opening this last tab, he was received by the mechanical voice of the system.
<Hidden task complete: Inspect all available system tabs. Receiving one free lottery spin.>
Terran wondered how hidden this task was as the system practically forced him to complete it. However, he was not one to complain when given free benefits, so he moved his attention to the wheel on the screen in front of him. The wheel was almost entirely covered except for a tiny slice where the reward would land. Currently, that space was blank. Next to the wheel was a number showing the number of spins.
Without much thought, Terran willed the lottery wheel to spin. For the first few seconds, he could only see a blur of words and small images flying through the winning slot. Soon, however, the wheel began to slow, and Terran's eye caught onto a few items; the first was +2 Strength. In fact, a lot of the wheel's prizes seemed to be varying amounts of stat changes. Suddenly a flash of gold passed his eyes. On the prize wheel was a reward named 'random blessing.' The wheel was about to stop on this reward which seemed akin to a jackpot.
Terran had not thought about it much before, but he was sure he would have been dead one thousand times over without his regeneration blessing. While in the past, he thought of it as more of a curse, he had since looked at it in a new light. He would now be lying if he said the thought of obtaining something else so precious was not highly tempting.
Despite this temptation, Terran watched gloomily as a sliver of gray appeared in the prize slot, kicking away the gold and occupying the arrow.
<Congratulations, the user has won a sack of kiwis from the basic Lottery!>